Statement on Building The New Economy

We are economists who think that the economy should serve people, the planet and the future.

Some politicians and economists still cling to the old claims that bigger is better, greed is good, a fossil-fueled economy is inevitable, and inequality is efficient. A growing body of evidence has shown this model to be bankrupt.

Instead of prosperity, it is feeding ever-wider inequalities of wealth and power that erode our health and economic well-being.

Instead of full employment, it is generating monthly job growth that fails to match labor force growth.

Instead of a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren, it has brought us to the brink of an unprecedented environmental crisis, consistently overstating the costs of actions to protect our climate while understating their benefits.

Instead of a competitive and resilient economy, it has fostered the growth of “too-big- to-fail” banks and corporations whose political power threatens the integrity of our democracy itself.

We call for a new economy founded on the building blocks of a level playing field, true- cost pricing, resilience, and real democracy.

In addition to new and effective policies in the critical arenas of job creation, housing, health care and regulation, we call for support for 21st century alternatives to the centralized, unfair, and unsustainable economy of the 20th century.

A new economy is already taking root across the country. The new economy includes small businesses accountable to the communities they serve. It includes clean energy producers. It includes worker-owned cooperatives. It includes locally based farming and food markets. It includes the peer production sector that gave birth to Wikipedia, Linux, and Freecycle.

The growth of this new economy demonstrates that economic activity can flourish when guided by social benefit rather than by private profit alone.

We extend our support to all who are working to build a new economy for our century – an economy that works for people, the planet, and the future.

Randy Albelda / University of Massachusetts Boston

Gar Alperovitz / University of Maryland College Park

Hannah Appel / University of California Berkeley

Michael Ash / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Lee Badgett / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Ron Baiman / Center for Tax and Budget Accountability

Scott Baker / Common Ground – NYC

Erdogan Bakir / Bucknell University

Benjamin Balak / Rollins College

Radhika Balakrishnan / Rutgers University

Fabian Balardini / Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY)

Ahmet Baytas / Montclair State University

Carole Biewener / Simmons College

Marc Bilodeau / Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

Cyrus Bina / University of Minnesota

Peter C. Bloch / University of Wisconsin-Madison

James K. Boyce / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Elissa Braunstein / Colorado State University

Antonio Callari / Franklin and Marshall College

Martha Campbell / SUNY Potsdam

Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Kimberly Christensen / Sarah Lawrence College

Jens Christiansen / Mount Holyoke College

Jennifer Cohen / Whitman College

J. Kevin Crocker / University of Massachusetts Amherst

James Crotty / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Omar S. Dahi / Hampshire College

Susan M. Davis / Buffalo State College

Carmen Diana Deere / University of Florida

George DeMartino / University of Denver

Geert Dhondt / John Jay College, The City University of New York

P.K. Dollar / Gem Communications

Laura Dresser / Center on Wisconsin Strategy

Marie Christine Duggan / Keene State College

Amitava Krishna Dutt / University of Notre Dame

Justin A. Elardo / Portland Community College

Gerald Epstein / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Bilge Erten / United Nations, DESA

Joshua Farley / University of Vermont

Kade Finnoff / University of Massachusetts Boston

Gerald Friedman / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Heidi Garrett-Peltier / University of Massachusetts Amherst

Barbara Garson / Author “Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% live in the Great Recession”

Armagan Gezici / Keene State College

David Gold / The New School

Jonathan P. Goldstein / Bowdoin College

Eban Goodstein / Bard College

Ilene Grabel / University of Denver

Doug Henwood / Left Business Observer, “Behind the News”

Wolfgang Hoeschele / Truman State University

Julio Huato / St. Francis College

Mary C. King / Portland State University

Mark Klinedinst / University of Southern Mississippi

Kazim Konyar / California State University, San Bernardino

Philip Kozel / Rollins College

David Laibman / City University of New York

June Lapidus / Roosevelt University

Joelle J. Leclaire / Buffalor State College, SUNY

Frederic Lee / University of Missouri Kansas City

Fernando Leiva / University at Albany (SUNY)

Charles Levenstein / University of Massachusetts Lowell

Margaret Levenstein / University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Patricia J. Lindsey / Retired

Sean MacDonald / New York City College of Technology, City University of New York